Valley of Darkness
by Nedy Rahn
Summary: Sergeant Elaine Conner, an Army National Guard Special Forces Medical Specialist finds herself isolated on post Cylon attack Carpica and meeting up with Anders' group of resitance fighters.
1. Chapter 1

26

**Valley of Darkness**

_Sometimes reunions occur in the strangest of circumstances._

_By_

_Denise Hemmingway_

Chapter 1

_**Delphi, Caprica 52 days after the Cylon Attacks on the Colonies:**_

Sergeant Elaine Conner ran along the empty street of the Denver sized city. Her breathing came in huffs and puffs as she picked one foot up and sat the other down in a ground eating pace. She hit the outskirts of this city a day after being separated from her patrol. That was nearly two months ago. The last thing she remembered before her patrol shifted to the world she now was calling home was patrolling a street in a village in Khost Province then a bright flash of light blinded them temporarily.

Then a week ago, about seven weeks after they found themselves on this planet, yes planet. It had to be another planet than Earth, because the stars at night were different than any seen in either the northern or southern hemispheres. They were ambushed by a squad of seven foot tall polished chrome robots lead by a woman, a tall, blond woman that could have graced the pages of a Victoria Secrets catalog back home in the states. Over the last week since the ambush SGT Conner looked around trying to guess the location of the remnants of her Special Forces Advisory Team. She knew she was alone in this city, well there were the robots and their human controllers, but she didn't count them. Each night she would go to ground and hole up in one of the empty buildings.

From her father years before she volunteered for the United States Army she heard about neutron weapons. They were a late Cold War development of nuclear weapons that were said to kill organic life in an area, but leave the buildings, machines, etc. usable by those that would come through later and occupy the ghost towns left behind. That must have been what happened to this city, someone actually started a nuclear war here. Looking out into the night from an outdoor supply store she broke into one night she thought about this thinking that whoever did this was insane. No one on Earth would destroy their world just to wipe out and enemy, well almost no one that was.

She was trying to get ahead of another patrol of the mechanical troops she had fought twice since coming to this place. God this was bad she thought as she finally dashed into a house that would have fit in back home in Denver. Her shelter was dark because of the lack of electricity. The robots' attack on this city must have taken out the power grid along with killing the residents. She looked through the cabinets in the house's kitchen and a closet that looked to be a pantry. There where cans with writing that looked like it was in the Greek alphabet so she had to go by pictures on the labels and hope that she didn't pick a can of the local version of Crisco thinking it was a can of fried chicken or something like that.

SGT Conner took time to clean her M4A1 and her M9. She was alone, well alone until she could find the other survivors of her team. The night was quiet and she found that to be odd, the neutron weapons used on this city killed the birds and other animals too. All she found alive were the local versions of cockroaches. She didn't linger on that thought as she cleaned her weapons and ate the local analog of pork and beans from a can.

In the patrol pack she wore she had stuffed some more cans of food. From the pictures on their labels some were tuna, some were a stew and others were soups of various kinds. Long ago she had used up the MREs she packed in the rucksack she carried on patrol. She had been surviving on locally obtained food in cans and heated them up on a folding cap stove that used fuel tabs in her canteen cup. Though she had a Camelback she still took two canteens into the field. She used one for cocking water and the other for cleaning water.

Tonight though she made what her great grandpa called a cold camp. She would like to have moved at night, but her night vision goggle's batteries played out three weeks ago. She didn't have a means of recharging them nor spare batteries. One of the mission team members had those. She left her tactical radio off except for a few minutes a day and only when she wanted to try again to see if she could find the rest of her teammates. After the first week they'd all gone silent so except for the robots and there overseers trying to kill her she was all alone.

SGT Conner had been one of the first women accepted into the Special Forces and was a Medical Specialist. Lucky for her she still had her field medical kit along with her Improved First Aid Kit (IFAK). Sadly she didn't have any anti-radiation medicines. Not knowing the local language that was on just about every label she couldn't know if she was staring at such if she had found any.

These thoughts plagued her sleep as she bivouacked in the empty house. She used a compactable sleeping bag she found in the same outdoor store she found the camp stove and a small mess kit that reminded her of the ones used in the European armies a few years back. The sleeping bag was comfortable, but she shivered from the terror of her dreams, not of battles in Afghanistan, no these had been replaced by a reoccurring one of one of those tall blond human overseers beating her to death as she tried to defend herself. God she missed Earth, even Afghanistan was better than this place. How the hell did she get here she thought in her dreams?

_**Delphi, Caprica 53 days after the Cylon Attacks on the Colonies:**_

Dawn came blazing through the kitchen window waking Elaine up by shining on her face. "Fuck I really hate mornings. I especially hate mornings waking up alone on a ghost planet," Elaine said as she stretched and then made ready to leave. She knew to stay in one place would increase the chances of her enemies finding her. She shook out her boots first and then after using her boot blousing bands and wrapping the cuffs of her trousers with them she put on her Army issue tan rough out suede and ballistic nylon combat boots.

Then as she packed up her gear from her overnight stay she pillaged a hand operated can opener, a fork, a spoon and a steak knife. She also packed a small set of cooking knives from the drawers in the kitchen. She then glommed onto a small pot to go with the mess kit. After further searching she found matches, a flash light and batteries, and a compound bow and some arrows. She looked over the bow and the attached six-arrow quiver and a belt quiver that held another twelve arrows. All of the arrows had tri-bladed arrowheads similar to ones she's seen on Earth. Thinking that these might not down any of the robot soldiers she's seen, but if she can get into a place where wildlife still lived she could hunt without depleting her limited supply of ammunition for her carbine and pistol. So she took the bow and the arrows.

Elaine looked through the closets and dressers of the bedrooms of the house and found some clothing that fit. She packed a couple of shirts, a jacket, and a pair of hiking boots into her pack with the items she scrounged from the kitchen. As she looked through the bedrooms and closets she also found a locally made automatic similar to a Glock in about ten millimeter or .40, a couple of spare magazines and two boxes of ammunition. Here like back home the boxes were loaded with fifty rounds. These were jacketed hollow points. Further searing turned up a box of fifty full metal jacket rounds for the pistol and a pump shotgun similar to those made by Mossberg back on Earth in about twelve gauge and three boxes of what looked to be birdshot. She'd have to scrounge up some buckshot and perhaps slugs for the open choked shotgun. The pistol and shotgun she kept putting the pistol in her pack with the ammunition.

After she figured she had latched onto all she could from the house she cautiously looked out a side door for signs of the robots and their human herders. Seeing not activity she quietly slipped out of the house closing the door behind her. She made her way to an alley behind the backyard and worked her way toward what looked to be a military base and a collection of apartment complexes that serviced the base's personnel as off base housing. She had seen these from the second story of the house. Near the apartment complexes were some strip malls and stand-alone stores. She could find some more supplies there if needed.

Carefully making her way through the allies she eventually made her way onto one of the complexes. As she hid behind a concrete partition wall of one of the parking garages she heard the sound of two people, a man and a woman talking. She eased herself in to a crouching position while holding her M4A1 where she could cover the two people once she saw them. They both wore what looked like military flight suits. Their flight suits looked like the close fitting space suits the Mercury and Gemini astronauts used in the early nineteen sixties only these were brown. The woman was about her height and age with short cropped blond hair and the man was about six feet tall with a very short cut brown hair and looked to be a little older than Elaine.

The pair stood next to what resembled a Humvee. The woman said something to the man and then walked around the truck doing a visual check of it. Next like soldiers back home she did what amounted to operator pre-operation preventive maintenance checks and services. So this woman and the man with her had to be military or former military. Elaine stepped out exposing herself and taking a chance that the two wouldn't shoot her. "Hello," Elaine shouted, "Can I hop a ride?" She walked up holding her hands out from her sides letting her carbine dangle from its bungee sling.

Lieutenant Kara Thrace drew her Colonial Issue pistol and jumped over the hood of her truck. Lieutenant Karl Agathon spun around drawing his weapon as the woman in a brown to tan gradient camouflaged BDU like uniform made her appearance. She had a carbine or rifle of some kind dangling from a sling in front of her and she kept her hands out from her sides far from it or the pistol in a tactical holster on her right leg. She wasn't even reaching for the shotgun or bow slung behind her. "Kara she doesn't look like the Cylon's we've seen so far. I don't recognize the language she spoke either," Agathon said keeping SGT Conner under cover with his own pistol.

Kara Thrace looked over the woman that had walked up to about ten meters from them. She had on a ballistic helmet similar to Colonial Marines with a cloth cover that matched her uniform and the armored tactical vest she wore. She had a field back and a couple of bags in the matching camouflage pattern too. "Cover me Helo, I'm going to disarm her and we're taking her with us," Kara said as she went over cautiously to the woman about her height and build.

"Ok, Starbuck, but I'm popping her if she moves wrong," Agathon replied as Thrace crossed the ten meters to the woman. Once there Starbuck unslung the rifle, shotgun and bow, slung the weapons on her body and took the pistol from the holster and tucked into her belt. Then she went around the woman and with a small push directed her over to her Colonial Armed Forces surplus truck.

"Get in the front miss. Helo, cover her while she gets in then get in the back as I get in the driver's side," Thrace said a she frog marched the woman to the front right passenger seat. "Come on, we don't have all day. And I don't want you down loading if you're a Cylon and letting your other models and copies knowing where we are. So we're taking you with us all the way back to the Fleet once we get a ship and bust of this rock."

Kara made sure the woman was buckled in then she took some zip-ties from the map compartment and tied her hands with them. "There I can't have you doing something stupid now can I?" Kara said afterwards. While Helo covered the woman captive Kara walked around the front of the truck and got in and sat in the driver's seat after stowing the woman's weapons in the rear driver's side passenger seat. Then Helo got in behind the woman.

SGT Conner realizing the language barrier just went along with the two local soldiers as the woman took her weapons and secured them just as she would have in a similar situation. Then she even let the woman put her in the Hummer and secure her hands. Hell she wouldn't have trusted these two back on Earth if she had caught them. After she was secured in the front passenger seat the man covered her while the woman went around the front of the Hummer and got in the driver's seat. Then the man got in the right rear passenger seat.

With everyone in the truck's passenger compartment the woman started it up and said something to the man that again Conner didn't understand, but it sounded very much like Greek to her. The man replied and sounded like he gave directions to the woman. They pulled out of the parking place in the parking structure under the apartments and drove through the complexes streets until they found one of the city streets. There the woman turned to the left and followed the street until it joined a highway that led into the mountains to the west of the city.

Elaine knew she should try to escape, but she also felt that these folks thought she was like the humans that led the robots. She couldn't speak their language so she chose to follow along and let them take her with them. Besides now she was not alone on this rock anymore. After an hour of driving and taking several side roads trying to find the place that the man, Helo had talked about with the woman, Starbuck. The names sounded to Elaine like callsigns so she thought the two might be pilots of some sort and thus were looking for some kind of air or space craft to get them off this rock.

Elaine at first didn't quite understand why the thought of a spacecraft came to mind, but after she had taken good looks at the pair's flight suits she decided that these two flew spacecraft more than aircraft. She came to think her first assessment was correct their flight suits were similar to the early space suits like the Mercury and Gemini astronauts wore in the early and mid-1960s. Only these looked to be made better and were higher tech. In fact these suits made the ones worn by today's astronauts and cosmonauts look very bulky and primitive. From her observations of these too Elaine figured this world's military had a space arm.

After all the driving around they did Elaine was now wishing that the female pilot, Starbuck had taken her pack and put it back with Elaine's weapons. She was getting a back ache from it being between her and the back of the seat. "Fuck could we at least pull over somewhere so we can get my pack and aid bags off of me and put back with my weapons?" Elaine finally said in a tone that would get the message across. Shit when she came to this world through whatever it was that brought her here her team was on a foot patrol with a platoon of Afghan infantry so they hand worn their field packs as well as their armored tactical vests. Since she was her team's medical specialist she had brought along two aid bags instead of the field pack sized field medical pack.

Those aid bags and the pack were making it hard to sit properly in the passenger seat of this planet's version of a Hummer. Because of this Elaine's back was screaming at her and thus her outburst a few seconds ago. Starbuck didn't understand Elaine's words, but Helo understood their intent, "Skέftomai ta pakέta όti ths enochloύn th Kara ths. (I think her packs are bothering her Kara.)"

Starbuck looked over her shoulder back to Helo and said, "Eίste bέbaio elikόptero; (Are you sure Helo?)" Then she pulled her truck over along the dirt road they were now on. Above them on the wooded slope was what looked like an old bunker of some kind to Elaine's eyes. As soon as they were pulled over in the shadow of the old bunker Starbuck reached over and cut the zip-ties she used to bind Elaine's hands with a lock blade knife that was not that much different than the one Elaine carried. Starbuck looked at her with a serious look on her face and point at Elaine with the knife said, "Kanέna prόblhma eseίs den akoύei! (No trouble you hear!). Then she looked back at Helo while Elaine kept her hands on the grab bar over the map compartment and said, "To elikόptero eίnai eseίs bέbaioi aytή den eίnai έna dέrma jop; (Helo are you sure she's not a skin job?)"

Elaine looked at the pair and then said, "I think we'd be better off if we knew each other's names. What do you think? I'm Sergeant Elaine Conner." The last she said pointing to herself with her left thumb while looking at the two local humans. She didn't know their language which to her still sounded like a form of Earth's Greek, but she was going to try to communicate with them. She was damn sure they didn't speak English, Farsi, or Pashtun. To make sure the other two were catching on she pointed to herself and said her name three more times.

Helo figured out what the woman was trying to say when he heard, "I'm Sergeant Elaine Conner," for the third time. "Starbuck, skέftomai όti lέei to όnomά ths eίnai h Elaine Conner kai όti eίnai lochίas. (Starbuck, I think she's saying her name is Elaine Conner and that she's a Sergeant.)" Helo said catching what sounded like the old Tauron word for her rank. The Tauron spoke a different language, but followed roughly the same religion as the rest of the Colonies. Helo had served with Fleet Aviators and before that, Marines from Tauron and knew some of their language.

"Milώ kάpoio Tauron kai milά mia glώssa poy ws merikέs lέxeis Tauron se to Starbuck. (I speak some Tauron and she's speaking a language that as some Tauron words in it Starbuck.)" Helo said as Starbuck stared at Elaine. Then Helo pointed to himself and said, "Eίmai o Karl Agathon. Eίmai ypolochagόs ston apoikiakό stόlo. To shmάdi klήshs moy eίnai elikόptero. (I'm Karl Agathon. I'm a Lieutenant in the Colonial Fleet. My call sign is Helo.)" Helo then said to Elaine. With his eyes he as good as said to Starbuck, "your turn."

Starbuck looked at the woman next to her still wondering where all this was going, but she said, "Eίmai h Kara Thrace, eίmai ypolochagόs ston apoikiakό stόlo kai to shmάdi klήshs moy eίnai Starbuck. (I'm Kara Thrace, I'm a Lieutenant in the Colonial Fleet and my call sign is Starbuck.)" Elaine nodded at them.

Then Elaine said, "I'm with the United States Army. I'm a Medic in the Special Forces." She wondered if she should say she's from Earth and that she has no clue as to how she got to whatever planet this is. She saw they looked confused at her until she showed them the symbol on one of her field aid bags and then she patted herself on the chest. Then the two of them understood. She was telling them that she was a Medic of some kind. They saw the symbol for Asclepius on her field medical bags and understood what she was trying to tell them.

"Elaine poia apoikίa eίnai to spίti sas; (Elaine what colony is your home?)" Helo asked looking at her. Elaine looked back at him confused. Then from his a pocket on the leg of his flight suit he took a small spiral note pad and a pen. Then he drew twelve circles on it and their symbols next to them. Next he drew a house like a kid would draw. Then repeating his question he pointed at each of the circles saying their names in alphabetical order as he did, Aerilon, Aquaria, Canceron, Caprica, Gemenon, Leonis, Libran, Picon, Sagittaron, Scorpia, Tauron, and Virgon. Each time he named one of the twelve he pointed from her to the circle to the house.

Elaine understood now and took his pad and pen from him and drew a thirteenth circle and the symbol for Earth a circle with a cross over it next to the first circle. Then she wrote Earth under the circle and pointing from it to the house, back to her and said, "Earth." The other two heard Earth clear as day and with shocked expressions looked at her wondering if she knew the way to Earth from here. Whatever happened now this woman had to come with them back to the Fleet Starbuck thought looking at the woman that as good as said she was from Earth.

For an hour they sat in Starbuck's truck filling up page after page of Helo's note book with crude drawings, but slowly Helo and Starbuck began to understand that SGT Conner hadn't a clue as to how she got from Earth to Caprica. The three of them did come to an understanding that Elaine had been on a patrol back home when some sort of explosion occurred. When Elaine and the members of her team awoke afterwards they found themselves in Delphi. Elaine and her team had been found by the Cylons and hunted down until as far as Elaine knew she was the only one left. Elaine showed by tic marks on one page that she had been here fifty three days so far. She drew ten groups of four with a slashing one through them and one group of three.

A look of concern came over Helo's face. Then on another page he drew their symbol for radioactive danger, which Elaine recognized as it was similar to the radiological symbol she knew. Next he drew a stick figure of a person puking and another with his hair falling out. Elaine's eyes went wide with recognition at this. He was in his own way asking if she felt sick from radiation. So far she had washed off her hands before eating and had used her ceramic field filtration bag to filter water for her canteens and Camelback. But she did point to the stick figure of the person puking and nodded. She'd been tossing up some of what she ate for a couple of weeks now.

Helo's eyes widened then he nodded and reached for a Colonial Armed Forces Field Medical Kit he salvaged before he and Starbuck met up. From it he took an auto-injector pen. He took the cap from it and through gestures and drawings he hoped he told Elaine that this would help to protect her from further radiation exposure and may help to flush what radiation she's ingested already. Elaine nodded, but she later mimed that they should teach her their language so that she could speak with them better.

Starbuck caught a brief glimpse of movement near the bunker above them and held up her hand gesturing the other two to be still. Again as she looked up through the trees at the old bunker she saw something move. She gestured to Helo to grab what to Elaine looked like an Uzi submachine gun as Starbuck took a pair of what looked to be Czech Scorpian machine pistols. As Starbuck and Helo got out of the truck, Starbuck gestured to Elaine to stay in the truck.

Elaine saw the two Capricans cautiously make their way up the slope of the hill the bunker was on. The bunker itself reminded her of the now over seventy year old bunkers she'd seen on trips to Hawaii, California, and Normandy, France when she was younger and her father was in the Marines. They would go look at the old coastal defense bunkers in Hawaii and California or the German beach defenses at Normandy because like her father, Elaine was fascinated by World War Two.

As she watched the pair work their way up to the top of the hill Elaine saw movement and slowly gathered up her M4 and her M9. Then she took both of her field medical bags. She carefully backed out of the truck took each bag and slung them by their straps so she had one on her left and the other on her right. Elaine holstered her M9 and slung the M4 by its bungee sling around her neck so it hung in front of her within easy reach.

She slung her medical bags one to each side and crouched down behind the Hummer. She reached across the seat where the man whom she learned was called Helo sat before they left to check out the bunker on the hill. The stock of her carbine was close to the edge of Helo's seat and she grabbed it, and slid her M4 toward her. That was when she felt the cold metal of a weapon's muzzle against the nape of her neck. The person said something in the local Greek like language and ripped her carbine from her hand. The coldness of the muzzle left her and someone's hands grabbed her shoulder and flipped her around.

Elaine hit the side of the Hummer hard and blinked once as a sharp pain radiated across her back. "Ouch that fucking hurt, be careful next time will you!" she blurted out only to be answered by someone's fist hitting her across her mouth and saying something in the local language that must have meant shut up bitch. Recovering from the shock of the pain caused by the punch her eyes focused on those around her. She saw a half dozen or so heavily armed people wearing an assortment of civilian and military clothing. They all had on the local version of an armored tactical vest. Most were pointing shotguns, military carbines, or sporting rifles at her.

Elaine just looked at each face defiantly while thinking that her day couldn't get any worse. Again she found herself trussed up only this time these people tied her in the local version of being hog-tied. They dumped her and her gear in the small pick-up bed portion of Starbuck's Hummer and four of their number got in up front and three of them got in the back with her. These people could give a rip about her she figured just from their actions and the roughness of their handling her so far. At least Starbuck and Helo had given her the benefit of the doubt. The hummer was being driven deeper into the forested mountains west of the ruined city and then the people turned off and drove up a hairpin curve that took them back towards the direction of the bunker that Helo and Starbuck had got out to investigate.

After fifteen minutes of travel Elaine felt the truck stop. One of the marauders hauled her up into a kneeling position in the bed of the cargo area of the truck. At that point Elaine could see the top of the bunker system Helo and Starbuck had got out of the truck to scout for hostiles. She saw Starbuck holding her small Scorpian like machine pistols on a tall dark-haired man to her right and on a black woman to her left. The tall dark-haired man had a military carbine that resembled the HK G36C from Earth. He held that on Helo who in turn held his Uzi like submachine gun on someone below him out of her line of sight.

All Elaine could do in her situation was to think that these folks had a lot of the same weapons her people had. Perhaps there was a sort of parallel development here as to that on Earth, but Earth's nations especially the powerful ones didn't have robot soldiers built like a cross between NBA players and NFL defensive linemen. She had been dodging those for weeks now and she wasn't sure if any of her people made it out of the hell that was the city down in the valley. On the contrary she thought for sure that she was the only one left of her Special Forces Team and the Afghan police platoon they were working with. If any of her people had been captured by the robots she was sure they were worse off than her at this time.

She was still in the back of Starbuck's Hummer when the tension lessened. The civilians lowered their weapons and the dark-haired man came over to the Hummer with Starbuck and Helo. Starbuck said something to the woman that drove the truck up the mountain and when the African American looking woman failed to respond promptly she just whipped out her hand and snatched her keys from the black woman with reflexes that would have made an Eastern Diamond Back Rattlesnake proud. Then Starbuck said something to the woman that was insulting to the other woman and the dark-haired man had to put himself between them.

At that time Helo took a combat knife and cut Elaine free saying something that sounded like an apology to her. She just smiled saying, "Thank you Helo." Helo looked like he didn't understand her exact words, but did make out her meaning and smiled at her. Elaine used that time to take of her MICH helmet and using her left hand she combed through her short cropped honey blond hair. She also took her goggles she had on the whole time and lowered them to around her neck. It was then that Helo and everyone except Starbuck noticed that she could be the female Colonial Fleet pilot's twin sister. Helo said something to Starbuck that must have brought Starbuck's attention to her. Starbuck came over smiled that deadly smile of hers and with a gentle touch that was unexpected took hold of Elaine's chin and moved her head from one side to another examining her.

"Eίste swstό elikόptero poy koitάzei kάti san egώ, schedόn pάra polύ όpws egώ. (You're right Helo she looks something like me, almost too much like me.)" Starbuck said to Helo as she looked over Elaine now that she removed her helmet. Then turning to the tall dark-haired man saying, "O Anders synantά th Elaine Conner, den eίnai apό gύrw apό thn. Den milά akόmh kai Caprican. (Anders meet Elaine Conner, she's not from around her. She doesn't even speak Caprican.)" Then Starbuck went back to looking over Elaine. "Έtsi eίmaste Cylons, ή eίnai emeίs akribώs dύo άnthrwpoi apό toys diaforetikoύs kόsmoys poy symbaίnoyn apό kάpoio tέchnasma ths fύshs na fanoύn tόso megάlo mέros ίdia; (So are we Cylons, or are we just two people from different worlds that happen to by some trick of nature to look so much alike?)" Elaine just stared at Starbuck confused not knowing what she said to her. But from the facial expressions she figured it was some question about the fact that Starbuck kind of looked like her though a lighter shade of blond.

Hours later after Starbuck, the tall dark-haired man called Anders, and Helo had decided that it was best not to linger at this site they all pulled into what looked like an old school campus of some kind. The people guarding Elaine had her follow them into the basement of the building and in some weird way she thought of scenes from the television series _Falling Skies_ when she saw this place and the other people milling around and through it. She was taken down to an area where a tall kind faced black man with a shaved head and hazel eyes examined her medically. He said some to her that she couldn't understand and she just cocked her head looking at him confused.

Simon looked at the human woman the Resistance Fighters had brought him. She looked to be healthy to some degree, but also suffering some from radiation poisoning. The mission, his mission had shifted from trying to slowly kill these people to actually trying to keep them alive so that the Cylons could study them. One of the Cavil's even let himself be rescued from one of the burn pits in order to infiltrate this cell. That operation had temporarily cost the Cylons several copies of Model Five, but it wasn't truly a great loss since Fives are worse than Eights.

Using calming tones and some hand gestures Simon was able to get the stranger to understand him. She let him treat her injuries and even begin treating her for her radiation sickness. She had been exposed for several days to the levels that Delphi gave off. It was only when the Colonial pilot Lt. Kara Thrace came in to check on the female soldier who through gestures and him telling his name to her and her sharing that hers was Elaine that he noticed the strong resemblance between Elaine and Thrace.

After he had Elaine resting in one of the dormitories Simon took Cavil aside to talk. "One did you notice the female soldier they brought in?"

Cavil looked at him and nodded, "Yes I did Four. It's odd that she resembles Kara Thrace so well isn't it?"

Four looked at him, in fact he actually glared at the senior Cylon and said, "Did our parents make another model we don't know about?"

A pensive look crossed over Cavil's face and he looked back at Simon shrugging and saying, "I just don't know. If they did it was before my brother killed them, boxed them, and then resurrected them with false memories. You being the original Four are the only one outside the Ones that knows the truth because we needed your help to complete that first phase of John's plan."

Simon looked back at him nodding as he said, "Well we'll have to observe her and Thrace then. I think I will take it upon myself to teach her Caprican as she doesn't speak it. I find traces of Tauron, Piconese, Caprican, and some of the other local languages of the Colonies in her speech, but there are other sources of words to that I don't recognize."

Cavil looked at Simon nodding and said, "Do that while I continue to observe Papa Sam to see if he's learned the lessons that my brother thought he should learn. I'm thinking that John like always didn't think this through. He has always been way to emotional for a machine, not that he's not calculating enough. It's that he's never really looked at the faultiness of his logic." Simon just nodded knowing his brothers for as long as he had. It was this Cavil that in fact saved him from the fate of the other original copies of the first eight Cylon biological models.

"Ok One, I'll keep an eye on Elaine. From what I could see she's from another world and a slightly different culture. For example I looked through her wallet. Her people don't cut the corners of their cards, pictures, or other documents. They all are squared off in either squares or rectangles. Then her dog tags are white metal oblong ovals with her name, a blood type, a birth date, a serial number and a religion imprinted into the metal. Her clothing she's wearing is in a camouflaged pattern not used anywhere in the Colonies."

"You have a dilemma there Four, but I'm sure with your analytical mind you'll find the answers to your and our questions about her. Now I have to go talk to Papa Sam and see if I can lighten his spiritual burdens some." After that Cavil just left Simon to go about his business. In a way Simon was happier that he was actually doing something to extend the lives of these humans who didn't know that they were part of the Cylon's small collection of pet humans. In the entire known Galaxy there were but a few tens of thousand humans left out of several tens of billions prior to the attack on the Colonies. At least that was what Simon and most any other Cylon biological unit thought that was involved in the project here to create humans that were more manageable by the Cylons than the billions and billions that existed before.

These wild humans and those few tens of thousands surviving in that fleet of refugees that escaped under the escort of the Battlestar Galactica and those couple of thousand aboard the Battlestar Pegasus were actually all the free humans left and there were Cylon operatives in each population monitoring them. Only in the Galactica's fleet the original Number One, John Cavil was working to destroy that population, because he was locked into destroying the entirety of the human race at any cost. Simon shrugged off those thoughts as he turned to go back into the old high school and went to his newest patient.

_**269 days after the Cylon attack on the Colonies, 215 Days after the Elaine joined the Resistance, location the Resistance Stronghold in the mountains outside Delphi, Caprica:**_

Elaine had been given an area of an old class room that was being used to house some of the women here at this former school. She stayed behind when Starbuck, Helo, and the Cylon called Sharon left to find the fleet of survivors trying to find Earth, her Earth. Now in a small corner which she had partitioned off she had set up her home away from home. Well to tell the truth it was to be her home from here on until Starbuck made it back to rescue the resistance.

Currently Elaine was practicing writing Caprican. She was learning the language and could by now speak it pretty clearly for everyday usage and even express more complex ideas concerning military and medical necessities to Anders and Simon. Elaine wasn't just learning to speak the Greek dialect spoken on Caprica she was learning to read and write it as well. It actually used a script similar to the Latin script English and many other Earth languages used.

In her small corner of this dying world she had amassed a small library of books on trauma medicine, military skills and tactics, and some local fiction and non-fiction. A dozen books weren't much and she kept a few really important and useful ones in a satchel bag she scavenged on one of the raids she went out as a medic on. They had spent the last five months hitting the Farms the Cylons ran using mostly copies of Simon to run. It was after rescuing Starbuck from one of these Farms that they learned Simon was one of the Cylon models.

When Jean came back to kill their Simon it was Elaine despite the then language barrier that saved him from being killed. She took responsibility for him and he taught her Caprican and about the source of the Cylon-Human troubles in this part of the Galaxy. In exchange she taught him English and about the Earth she knew. The Colonials left her and Simon pretty much alone after that first failed attempt to kill him. She and he began to grow closer since then. Now she kept her small arsenal with her in her cubical and went about armed at all times just like in Afghanistan.

Earth and Afghanistan seemed to be far away paradises now. So much time had passed since her displacement by whatever intervention from there to here that she thought that by now everyone though that entire mission became a total blood bath. This long after their disappearance she was sure she had gone from missing in action to being listed as killed in action. Back on Earth she had few living relatives so no one was there that missed her. What kept her going here was the growing relationship with Simon and her desire to help these survivors make it to the time that Starbuck would come back and rescue them.

"What's on your mind now Elaine," Simon asked as he came into her cubical to talk with her. He looked around at what she had done to make the place more livable for her. She had made drawings and hung them with push pins on the walls of the office cubical partition walls they found on a foraging expedition recently. They were scenes from Caprica and from her home back on Earth. He smiled as Elaine was an accomplished artist besides a skilled medic. In fact he was teaching her to be more of a doctor so that when the time came that he was killed and no longer around these people would still have a skilled doctor with them.

Elaine looked back at him and said, "Just thinking that everyone on Earth thinks I'm dead by now. I miss home Simon, I want so much to go back. Here I may not be a stranger anymore, but I am the only one of my people amongst the remnants of humanity here. I taught you my language so that out here wherever here is in relationship to Earth English won't be a dead language." She then ran her hands over the growing swell of her belly. Simon knew that sometime during their shared lessons he had fallen in love with her and smiled as he saw the product of that love growing with in her. Then he began to let his mind wonder as he took stock in what he had learned from her. He no longer was the cold analytical engine of a Cylon that most of his model was seen as by their siblings, he was learning to be more human and Elaine was teaching him.

Elaine had taught him so much in the six months since she came here. She was different from the Colonials. Her passion was different too and he could talk about his belief in God to her and have a common believer talking to him. Her faith wasn't exactly his, but she did believe in just one god that created all the universe and all that lived in it. Of the Fours he was a believer, maybe not as passionate in his belief as say a Two, a Three, or a Six, but he believed just the same. Elaine taught him about different doctors from her world's history and about the oath they all took went they became doctors in her country.

Elaine had taught him about her being a medical student back home and having to put that on hold for a year while her National Guard Special Forces unit was deployed to a country called Afghanistan half a world away from her home in Colorado. She told him about the Rocky Mountains, Denver, Colorado, the United States, and Earth. By now when she was talking about her home many of the survivors and resistance fighters would gather around and listen to her talk of her homeworld. She would draw pictures of the places she's seen and these scenes would illustrate her stories. Simon found that the survivors were again accepting him within their ranks and for some reason he and Cavil had stopped sending reports to the Cylon council in charge of Caprica.

_**270 days since the Cylon destruction of the Colonies and 216 days since Elaine joined the Resistance:**_

The Cylons had found their base while Anders had taken a special assault group into the city. Elaine, Simon, and Brother Cavil had managed to get those that survived the attack to a safe place to wait for Anders and the survivors' of his raid return. Elaine had taken to using a Colonial Armed Forces issue assault carbine along with a Colonial Armed Forces 10mm pistol with an underbarrel grenade launcher used for firing anti-armor rounds. The Colonial's small arms ammo was designed to defeat the armor of the War of Independence Centurions, but the newer ones had better armor and sometimes only the 12.5 mm anti-material rifles, the 8mm assault rifles and 8mm Magnum hunting rifles were the only weapons effective against them when the Centurions came. There were limited quantities of the CAF anti-armor rounds so only the best shots got the pistols equipped with their launchers. Elaine was actually the best shot in the entire group.

In her job as Simon's assistant she was responsible for protecting the wounded as they came to her at the new aid station. She had trained a small squad of medics within their group to do battlefield trauma medicine and get the people wounded back to the aid station so that they could receive better life saving medicine. Now toward the end of the 216th day of her being with them and her 281st day of being on the planet itself she was weary of War and wanted so much for Starbuck to return. There were but fifty of the group left and that counted Anders' assault party.

They had walked through the woods managing to finally avoid the army of Centurions following them. As long as they kept mobile the Cylons weren't able to find them so well. At first the others thought that Simon was still working with his people, but then Elaine said, "Get real people how many times had we all come and gone from the high school leaving and returning using the same routes. We got stupid people and they just had to track us back to our hideout." The others after having that discussion at one of their rest breaks nodded at agreeing with her logic and several apologized to Simon for doubting him. Simon smiled at her and hugged her warmly afterward. Then they got the walking wounded moving and had the litter bound ones carried by those able to work, but not willing to fight.

It was growing towards night and the shadows were getting longer. One of the things that help them to save so many of their group was Elaine's wilderness survival skills. Though the planet was different, Caprica was enough like Earth that the area between Delphi and Caprica City was much like the Cascades near Seattle in Washington back on Earth. In fact someone must have gathered seeds and such from Earth and planted them here as the plant life here was the same as in the Olympia Forest near Fort Lewis where she trained sometimes prior to her last deployment to Afghanistan. Strangely so were the insect, reptile, amphibian, and mammalian life. She didn't take time to do more than observe that for now. She had people to save and ground to put behind them.


	2. Chapter 2

16

Valley of Darkness

_Sometimes reunions occur in the strangest of circumstances._

_By_

_Denise Hemmingway_

_You're born, you live and you die. There are no do-overs, no second chances to make things right if you frak 'em up the first time. Not in this life anyway. [...] Like I said, you make your choices and you live with them. And in end you are those choices._

_Kendra Shaw_

Chapter 2

_**270**__**th**__** day after the fall of the Colonies, Delphi Forest, Delphi Mountains, on Caprica 216**__**th**__** since Elaine Conner joined the Caprican Resistance:**_

Elaine was helping to evacuate the few wounded they had. There were a couple of dozen survivors of their group. Of that number six were being treated for wounds and two of those were stretcher cases. The other four were helping to carry those two. Elaine and Simon were treating the wounded at each break. It was during one of these breaks that she heard Jean and Sam challenge some group ahead of them.

Kara Thrace and Samuel Anders met in the small hallow at the bottom of the hill the resistance people were on and everyone stood up. On the other small hill were a like number of Colonial Marines and some pilots. Then after Sam and Kara broke their embrace Sam called out, "All right everyone, come out; Kara's returned to get us off this rock!" With those words Elaine got her medical section to move the two stretcher cases down the hill as Simon and Brother Cavil helped.

They thought they succeeded in avoiding further detection by the Cylons after walking farther into the forest in the direction of the LZ where Kara's Raptors waited for them, but an hour before sundown a Raider swooped down and the banked back around firing on them after spotting them. At that point Elaine found herself wishing for a loaded Stinger launcher, but this was post holocaust Caprica, not Earth and the American-Afghan War. Luckily the resistance fighters, Marines, and pilots were better at ducking and covering than the Raider was at shooting at moving things on the forest floor.

They all ran for cover finally hiding out in the ruins of an old reinforced concrete building. There were silhouettes of people burned into the concrete and Elaine was sure everyone with her knew just what sort of explosion did that. The forest had reclaimed an old Colonial or Caprican military base sometime after the First Cylon War. Now they were trapped within the walls of the ruins of one of its bunkers. For most of the rest of the evening and into the night the Cylons bombed and shelled their position. After about eight hours of this the Cylons must have thought everyone was dead for the shelling, strafing, and bombing ceased.

Elaine looked around seeing that Brother Cavil wasn't present. Simon was here helping her with the wounded, "Simon where's John? I don't see him! It's dangerous for him to wander off like that! One of the Colonials may shoot him thinking the truth about you all, that he's off giving our position away to the others of your people. I'm not quite sure what he thinks he's doing, but this is a dangerous game both you and the Colonials are playing." She looked back to changing the dressing on one of the two stretcher cases they were carrying.

Simon looked out through a hole in the concrete wall of the ruins of a Cylon War of Independence Era Caprican Defense Forces bunker. Then just behind a small rise in the mist shrouded night he saw John and one of the Sixes. "Elaine I think our wayward priest is talking to one of the Sixes over there," Simon said quietly nearly under his breath. As he spoke he stealthily pointed through the hole toward where John was talking with a tallish statuesque woman who to Elaine looked like she could grace any of Earth's myriad choices of fashion magazines.

"Your sister could turn the heads of any man or woman with those looks Simon," Elaine said a she finished binding the pressure dressing on the woman lying on the last of two stretchers they salvaged from their supplies back at the Delphi campus of the Athena Academy. Simon smiled at Elaine, only she would think of something like that in the middle of what was possibly their last night in this existence. Simon knew if they were hit with more shells and he died it would not be his last day, but he would be saddened to lose Elaine. She was the one that made him complete.

"Elaine, love, I think she knows that. It was her function when not leading Centurions to be an infiltration specialist. To accomplish her missions each copy is programmed and skilled in all means of human sexuality and love making. Six is a very sensuous creature," Simon said close to Elaine's ear so only she could hear him. Then his eyes traveled down her frame and noticed the growing swell of her belly. "So am I to be a father soon, Elaine?" Simon then leaned closer and planted a peck of a kiss on her cheek. He pulled back smiling his ivory colored nearly perfect teeth lending a slight glow to his chocolate colored face. The glow of his smile reached all the way to his eyes. Somewhere along the way he had evolved from the cold analytical inhuman machine into a truly humane man of medical science with the tutoring on what it means to be human from this Earth woman next to him.

Elaine smiled as she helped him to move the stretcher out of the way of the hole. She hoped to shield the almost eighteen year old woman from possible ricochets from any Cylon Centurion's built in machine gun. In the next instances she found herself with her own Colonial Marine Corps issue C-36 carbine at the ready watching the slope opposite where she saw John step out from some bushes and talk to a Six. As she watched the Cylon posing as their chaplain and father confessor she looked at Simon, "Geesh Simon you know the right time to ask the most inappropriate questions." Then she looked back at Cavil, he was walking back after talking with the Six. "Simon, would you cover the wounded for me? I'm going to see what Cavil was up to." She got up in a crouch and duck walked in a hurried pace toward where Cavil was heading.

Once clear of the wall and well back in the trees she stood a little more erect and rest behind a large redwood like those back home on Earth in California or even the heavy temperate rain forests of Oregon or Washington. She withdrew here M9 from the holster on her right leg and placed the barrel against John's temple as he came past the trunk of the tree. In a quiet cold as steel voice Elaine asked, "So how'd your rendezvous go with the Six? What was it about?"

John froze when he felt the cold steel barrel of the pistol against his temple and listened to Elaine ask him how it went with the Six. He swallowed hard and said, "She said that the Cylons are evacuating Caprica and the Colonies. She added that the attacks on the Colonies were in error. Elaine, you're not a Colonial, but I want you to know after living with these Colonials for most of a year I believe that the Six was correct. This war was in error and my brother made a big mistake in pursuing it." He looked sidelong at Elaine hoping that she wouldn't pull that trigger. He knew she hadn't drawn her recovered Colonial issue sidearm, but the pistol she's had with her since coming to this world. This one wasn't that good against a Centurion, but against him it would do the job especially at this range.

"Ok, let's find Anders and Thrace; let them know what you've learned and you can tell them what I know about you. They already know about Simon, John, but I haven't told them about you, yet." Elaine withdrew the pistol from the side of John's head, but kept him covered by it as she backed up enough steps to give her room in case he changed his mind about not killing any humans. With her pistol in her right hand she gestured for him to go ahead of her with her left, "After you John."

John nodded and walked toward the main part of the camp crouching down some once they were behind the walls of the ruins from the previous Cylon War. They got to where the Agathons, Sam Anders, and Kara Thrace were laying on the ground behind the old meter thick wall and John said, "I have some news. It's news concerning the Cylons and the Colonies."

Kara rubbed her eyes and propped herself up on her elbows, "What news is that Brother Cavil?" She looked at him and noticed that Elaine was behind him with a pistol on him. That was odd, she thought to herself as she cleared her mind of cobwebs and tapped Anders on the shoulder to wake him too. If she was having her sleep interrupted so was he.

Elaine switched from her pistol to her carbine and squatted down; Kara noticed that this was Elaine's old Earth issue M4. Kara knew that Elaine was low on ammo for it, but she carried it just the same as to not let it fall into Cylon hands. She saw that from another bungee style sling Elaine still carried the CMC issue C-36 as well as a CF issue sidearm in a holster on her tactical vest.

Elaine saw Kara giving her the evaluation look and she smiled back at Starbuck as if to say, 'don't worry I've got him covered.' Elaine still favored her Earth issue weapons over their Colonial counterparts, but she was low on ammunition for them. Yet they made her feel more comfortable. Then she whispered, "John's got some news. Don't you John? Oh and he'll confirm it, but he's a Cylon like Simon. I haven't reported him yet because I talked him into joining us rather than helping his people to kill us all off. It seems that letting him know about the seven billion other humans on Earth kind of settled it for him. It seems that since my people don't have the advanced robots like these Cylons, to him we're not a threat like you all are." She saw Kara and Sam give her a glare that could have melted ice, but she shrugged and said, "I had my own reasons to leave them alive. In Simon's case it was the need to have help with the wounded. In John's it was to have someone I could talk faith with from time to time. Or didn't you know that I'm a Monad as you call those that are monotheistic?"

John looked at the Agathons, who were awake now, and Starbuck and Anders then said, "I met with a Six in the woods out there. It seems they're pulling back and are going to evacuate the Colonies. Their new leaders a Six called Caprica and an Eight called Sharon Valerii want to meet with you all in the morning so that they can give you a message to pass on to Adama and Roslin. They also want to bring any other survivors to the Fleet and once they've transferred those from their ships to yours they'll go their separate ways. It seems that they've concluded like Simon and I have that the war was in error. I could have told them that back before we did all this, but my brother had them all mesmerized into thinking that it was best for us to eliminate the humans to make room for us. I know for a fact Father Sam that he killed all five of you our parents plus our brother Daniel. Now I have to get to the Fleet to kill him and hope that the Fleet itself is far from a Resurrection Ship otherwise we'll have him to face again and again."

John went quiet then seeing the looks on everyone's face as they let what he said sink in. Kara was the first to speak, "So you're saying the Cylons are pulling back and that the human race is free to go find Earth? What's to keep either side from seeking each other out and finishing this once and for all?" She saw John shrug as if to say he didn't have an answer, but it was Elaine that came up with the answer.

"Well as far as I know Earth doesn't have the means to travel back to the Colonies. When whatever it was that snagged me from there and then dropped me in Delphi just after the bombs fell, we were only able to get as far as our moon. That was with a multistage rocket. In my life we were only using a Space Shuttle fleet with a huge external fuel tank and two booster rockets to make it to middle and low orbit. Up until two years ago we used them to service satellites and the International Space Station or ISS." Elaine looked at them to gauge just how that sunk into their minds.

Then Elaine added, "On Earth we mostly travel by aircraft, ships, trains, or motor vehicles. We don't even have robots as advanced as the Cylon Centurions or as advanced as John and the other synthetic human models. We have remotely piloted recon and attack aircraft and a few unmanned self-guiding long ranged pilotless bombers, but nothing like the Cylon Raiders. Most of our robots are wire or radio guided, or preprogrammed tools for manufacturing, hazardous waste handling, or reconnaissance and surveillance. Somewhere in the whole of their operation is a human or team of human operators."

Elaine looked out into the woods beyond their encampment behind the walls of the ruins thinking as she formulated the next thing she was going to say, "That computer I have with me is one of the most advanced we have and it's not an AI by any stretch of the imagination. I've let Simon use it to keep records of our patients on it and we've played a few of the games I have on it. It's helped me to teach Simon, John and my medics English too. I just didn't want to be the only one of us that speaks my native language." She looked at Thrace then and smiled, "You know Kara if it wasn't for me knowing Greek from the neighborhood I grew up in back on Earth I wouldn't have learned Caprican as well as I have, but I wanted others I could speak English with so that it wouldn't die within me. Teaching it to my medics and to our two resident Cylons," she looked at Sam now, "helped to keep it alive for me."

Elaine looked out into the woods as now the sun was coming up and showing that there were no Centurions present. "The Centurions must have pulled out during the night. I don't see sunlight reflecting off of Chrome out there." She stood up and then a thoughtful look crossed her faces as she looked over John, Sam, and then over toward Simon.

Kara looked at Elaine seeing the look on her face as the other woman's eyes went from Brother Cavil, to Sam, and then over to Simon. "What's on your mind Elaine?" she asked as she saw that Elaine had come up with an idea.

"We, that is, Simon, John, Sam, and myself should ride with you Starbuck. That way you have the Cylons and me all in the same plane. Your Marines can ride with the others in the rest of your shuttlecraft back to the Fleet," Elaine said. After she said that a saddened look came across her face as she looked out into the woods, "My biggest regret in this whole thing was that I never was able to find my comrades. My entire B-Team was snagged along with the platoon of Afghan troops we were advising. I'm the only survivor of over thirty people snatched from Earth by whatever that energy field was. I may not be the only human here, but I'm the only Earther. At least you Colonials and Cylons have each other. I, I have no one who has a common background with me." Tears ran down Elaine's cheeks as she spoke that last bit. Her face tried to mask the pain she was feeling at knowing that here light years beyond the Colorado Rockies, beyond the Hindu Kush, beyond the sands of the California Coast, she was the lone Earther.

Elaine sniffed once or twice, turned and walked back toward where Simon was with their wounded saying, "I've got wounded to prep for medevac." Kara got up to try to comfort Elaine before she walked off. John looked nodding at the lone Earther in their midst somewhat understanding her pain and loneliness, but it was Father Sam that touched Kara giving her a look that said, 'Let her go Kara, the woman needs to grieve in her own way."

John looked back at Kara, Sam, and the Agathons and said, "I think I'll help her get the wounded ready to move toward the rescue Raptors. She's right you know, Kara. You should have us ride with you on your Raptor. I don't want to be Air Locked just for being my race. I may not have been born of a mother's womb like you or Helo, but I live just the same. I breath, I think, and yes God damn it I feel pain, sadness, and other emotions. Sam and my other parents made us to be like you so that we could someday return to the Colonies and reunite with our brothers and original creators. You know if Daniel Graystone and the others hadn't of built our forbearers with the idea of making a race of slaves both Cylon Wars would have been avoided. I don't fault the whole of humanity like my brother does, but I did see his point of view broken as it was." He let them think that over as he went to help Simon and Elaine with the wounded from the trek here and from the battle that followed them to this place.

_**Rescue Mission Landing Zone half a day's march from the ruins:**_

It took them nearly five hours to get from the ruins to the large meadow that the Rescue Mission used as its LZ. Once there working with the Colonial Fleet medics and those she personally trained SGT Elaine Conner made sure all her wounded were secured on a Raptor for transport with at least one medic to care for them. She then loaded herself on to Kara Thrace's Raptor to ensure the safety of Simon O'Neill, John Cavil, and Samuel Anders. Elaine figured that Karl Agathon could look after the safety of Sharon and had done so since they left Caprica all those months before. She looked up toward the front where Sharon now sat in the Co-Pilot's chair and Kara in the Pilot's saying, "We're ready back here!" Looking around she saw that the Marine Sergeant leading the small squad with them nodded in agreement.

Kara counted down the time to launch over her wireless link to the other Raptors. Then all eighteen surviving birds lifted off climbing to the heavens above. Elaine never having flown in space had buckled herself in. She noticed that the g's tugging at her were no stronger than those she felt in a helicopter back on Earth. Over her headset she said, "We get back to Earth, the Colonials will have to share this technology with the major nations. We could use the ability to get off planet without extreme g-forces pulling back on us in our space launches."

What Elaine hadn't said yet was that she had trained as an Army Space Mission Specialist. Her Dress-Blues back home at the military base she called her home had an Army Space Service Pin on its lapel. Granted she hadn't been assigned to a mission yet, but she was officially one of NASA's Astronauts. She went through the training one summer in lieu of Annual Training and passed at the top of her class. Oh the story she'll have to tell when she gets home to Earth. That is if she ever gets home to Earth.

Though Elaine was certain that she was the only one of her team from the 19th Special Forces Group to have survived their arrival on Caprica, there were others and at this time they were on the same ship they've been on for 281 days. They had worked with the Captain of the Merchant Vessel Orion's Belt to establish a security force with the help of a handful of surviving Afghan soldiers that were with them when they boarded the MV Orion's Belt along with as many civilians as the ship could safely hold. Captain William Langston, the team's CO now worked with Captain Tamara Addams the ship's captain to ensure the safety of those aboard. The Orion's Belt was the only ship in the fleet of survivors that had its own well trained security force. That was thanks to CPT Langston and his troops.

_**Shuttlecraft 1 off of the MV Orion's Belt, Caprican Transport Service long range transport ship with the Colonial Fleet 281**__**st**__** day since the Cylon attacks on the Colonies:**_

Captain William Langston, Second Lieutenant Sandra Morse, and Staff Sergeant Jose Torres were as far as they knew the only members of their Special Forces Advisory Team to have made it off Caprica alive after the transfer or shift from Earth. After their initial battle with the Cylons in Delphi, the team and its associated platoon of Afghan National Army troops had been scattered. The running fight with the Cylons had whittled their force down from nearly forty to just a handful. Between CPT Langston, 1LT Morse, SSG Torres and the half dozen Afghans still with them they had barely a squad. Yet it was that squad that provided for the safety of the MV Orion's Belt.

The Belt as everyone came to call it over the nearly year they've been on it was about the size of a nautical Cruise Ship and a Container Ship combined. It had to mass nearly 100,000 metric tons. It was one of the largest of the fleet of civilian ships being guarded by the Colonial Battlestars Galactica, Pegasus, and Valkyrie. In his duties and Chief of Security for the Belt, CPT Langston had made several trips to the Galactica to confer with Admirals Adama and Cain. Now he was on one of the Belt's Cargo Transports heading over to The Bucket for another meeting. This time it was as the Commander of Ground Forces and Marines. It seemed that though he wasn't in the Colonial Armed Forces officially since by Colonial Law Earth was considered one of the Colonies he was in effect a member of the Colonial Armed Forces.

After Langston's first meeting with Adama which he muddled through using his limited knowledge of Earth's Modern Greek Langston found himself with a Commission in the Colonial Armed Forces with the rank of Major. After the reunification with the Battlestar Pegasus and the civilian fleet led by the Scylla, Langston found himself Commander of all the Marines and other Ground Forces within the Fleet.

It never rained, but it poured as far as Langston was concerned. He already had the talk with the President of the Colonies several times. It seemed that she never quite believed that he had no clue as to how to get to Earth from here. All he did have was what information was stored on his laptop. That was just what was on his copies of Encarta, one of the digital encyclopedias you can buy in a Post Exchange or off base on the economy back home in the U.S.

Now he was going to a meeting with the Admiralty and the President again. Something was up. He had trained the Marines from the Rescue Force and he had taken part in Starbuck's planning of the overall mission. To lead the Marines he sent 1LT Morse and SSG Torres as they like him were the only troops that had Combat Leadership experience within the Fleet. He still didn't fully trust the Afghans with them to handle this mission. So he left the Afghan Staff Sergeant and his squad to guard the Belt as he went to the Bucket for another meeting in a long string of meetings. The Afghan SSG sent one of his more trustworthy soldiers as Langston's personal guard. Sergeant Omar Hussein still didn't trust the Colonial Marines to protect Langston. So here CPT Langston sat with PVT Yusuf Khost as his protector and aide.

Yusuf Khost was on the legendary adventure of a lifetime. Snagged from his home in the Hindu Kush of eastern Afghanistan by some strange sorcerer's powers in the flash of light that left them on the streets of a strange distant city called Delphi fighting metal men called Cylons, Yusuf was indeed the most traveled young man from his small village in Khost Province. He didn't mind watching over Captain Langston of the Americans as the man was kind and a good officer. Langston was also a follower of the Book, though not a Muslim, like himself. At least Langston was not an Infidel like most of the people from these Twelve Colonies of Kobol. Yusuf shivered as he thought about what happened there in the Twelve Colonies. Like many of his squad mates he thought that God, Allah had brought them here to safeguard his lost sheep back to the Fold. People, humans, living on a dozen worlds far from the true home of man that was a truly enlightening revelation to all that survived the power of the sorcerer who stole them from their homes.

As one of the six Afghans living in the Fleet Yusuf felt privileged to be Captain Langston's Guardian. He made sure that the Infidel Colonials didn't harm his Captain. Now they were once more going over to talk to Admirals Adama and Cain. Adama was a kindly, but strict grandfather in Yusuf's view. Cain though was a panther waiting to strike as her prey. She made Yusuf's skin crawl as they laid eyes on each other. Yusuf knew that one day he may just have to protect CPT Langston from Cain even if it cost him his life.

"Captain Langston this is Wilson, we're going to be a bit delayed," said the pilot from the cockpit over the intercom. Langston and Khost looked forward to the pilot and Langston nodded before activating the push to talk key on his headset.

"What's the delay Wilson?" Langston asked looking into the pilot's eyes as James Wilson looked back at him.

"The Rescue Fleet has returned and its Raptors are landing on the Galactica at this time Captain. We're in the cue to land next sir," Wilson said. Wilson went back to piloting the shuttlecraft.

Langston knew something Wilson didn't. Wilson matched the photographs passed around early after the Belt and the Valkyrie joined up with the Galactica after the Battle of Ragnar. Wilson was a Cylon, a Leoben Conoy model to be precise, but Wilson never had taken action against the Colonials he worked with. So under CPT Langston's recommendations Wilson was left alone and watched. Even after another Leoben Conoy model had been discovered in the Fleet on one of the freighters that was part of Galactica's original fleet Wilson was left alone.

To ensure that Wilson was not in a position to harm the Fleet he was put under the command of CPT Langston and made his personal pilot. So Shuttlecraft 1 from the MV Orion's Belt was now Langston's personal ship. Smaller than a Colonial Heavy Transport like Colonial One, the Hercules-Class Shuttlecraft was a workhorse of the Colonial Civil Transport Fleet prior to the Second Cylon War. SC-1 was no different than most of its sisters in service with the Survivor Fleet. SC-1 could hall thirty-two passengers and an equal mass of cargo. The Passenger Deck was over the Cargo Deck and the cockpit was forward and had room for the flight crew and a few VIP officers. It was in the Cockpit where CPT Langston and PVT Khost were with the flight crew.

The Hercules-Class shuttlecraft was the size of two CH-47 Chinook transport helicopters back on Earth in Langston's view. He knew there was a military version of the Hercules as well and that one was used by the Marine Corps' Assault Ships to transport troops, vehicles, and cargo to the surface of a planet. Like its civilian counterpart and the smaller Raptors it had a limited FTL jump capability. Langston only had to endure one Jump on SC-1 since the escape from Delphi and Caprica on the Belt. When in transit from one point to another Langston found that he had lots of time to be lost in his thoughts and waiting in a cue to land gave him even more time. One such thought that flashed across his mind this time was at least he didn't have to worry about some Taliban fighter with a SAM or STINGER trying to shoot his helicopter down as he flew back into his base from whatever mission he just finished. No there millions of more other worries to go through his thoughts as he waited.


	3. Chapter 3

Valley of Darkness

_Sometimes reunions occur in the strangest of circumstances._

_By_

_Denise Hemmingway_

_"Sometimes, you gotta roll the hard six" - Commander William Adama_

Chapter 3

_**Shuttlecraft 1 off of the MV Orion's Belt, Caprican Transport Service long range transport ship with the Colonial Fleet 281**__**st**__** day since the Cylon attacks on the Colonies:**_

_When in transit from one point to another Langston found that he had lots of time to be lost in his thoughts and waiting in a cue to land gave him even more time. One such thought that flashed across his mind this time was at least he didn't have to worry about some Taliban fighter with a SAM or STINGER trying to shoot his helicopter down as he flew back into his base from whatever mission he just finished. No there are millions of more other worries to go through his thoughts as he waited._

Aroused from his thoughts by Wilson again Langston looked out through the canopy of the Hercules to see that they were now on the flight path to land on the Flight Deck of Galactica's Port Flight Pod. "Thanks Wilson," said Langston. Then he readied himself for when they would get off the ship in the Hangar Deck. He was certain that his meeting with Admiral Adama would prove interesting this day. Afterwards he'll have to debrief Kara Thrace and her strike force. _Captain Kara Thrace_, he began to think, _there's a real piece of work. If it weren't for her skills in handling just about anything that flies she'd have been court martialed shortly after the death of one of her student pilots._

CPT Langston took out his laptop from his well-used sling pack. As he waited for his shuttle to be allowed into the landing cue he opened up and started his military grade HP. Once it was up and running he called up the word document he had on Colonial Fleet Aviation Captain Kara Thrace, callsign: Starbuck. Reading the file he made on her from the ones he had been given by Commander Leland Adama an Admiral William Adama, Langston noted that Kara Thrace ever since the death in a Viper training accident of one Junior Lieutenant Zackary Adama had been on a self-destructive kick that had landed her many times in the Brig. Only her tactical genius and flying skills kept her in the service with a commission; however her behavior ensured that all promotions were slowed if not entirely blocked. Well that was so until the fall of the Colonies.

Langston had developed dossiers on all the pilots and Marines assigned to the Rescue Mission so as he waited for the shuttle to land he reviewed each of them. He stopped and read Lieutenant Karl Agathon's next. Agathon was a classmate of Kara Thrace's from the Colonial version of high school though Advanced Viper School. Though Agathon whose callsign was Helo passed all the same schools Thrace did including Colonial Marine Corps Force Reconnaissance School, he had elected first to take his commission in the Colonial Marine Corps rather than the Fleet. He also chose to be the Electronics Countermeasures Officer on Raptors over flying Vipers. The one odd thing was despite his preference for the military utility craft, Helo still maintained his hours in the cockpit of a Viper as was noted with his cross-training with the older Mark II Viper that was the mainstay of the Galactica's Air Group. The only blemish by Colonial standards was his falling in love and having a child with a rogue Cylon Model Eight while he was stranded on Caprica. Langston made a note to Helo's dossier to ask Adama if Helo could be assigned to his Flight Section. Similarly Langston made such a remark to Starbuck's file.

As soon as his pilot Lieutenant Cameron Wilson said that they were next in line to land Langston shut down his laptop and put it away. Then he readied himself for his umpteenth Battlestar Landing. He'd had landings on United States Navy Aircraft Carriers and Assault Carriers before, but a Colonial Battlestar was an experience all in its own. Yet his training from being a passenger in the cargo bays of C-2 Greyhounds, MV-20 Osprey, or Seahawk and Blackhawk helicopters came to him every landing. The Colonials not used to seeing his trained responses often laughed, but since a Hercules Shuttlecraft was like a cross between a C-2 Greyhound and a CH-47 Chinook Langston tended to cross his arms over his chest and tuck his chin into the pocket made by crossing those same arms. He didn't look up until after he felt the thump of the landing of the shuttle at the designated pad.

Once down he waited until the shuttle had been lowered into the Hangar Deck of the Flight Pod. The electromagnetic tractor system of the Battlestar was something Navy could copy into their next generation of carriers if the Galactica ever made it to Earth. Finally the shuttle came to a halt in one of the larger maintenance bays on Chief Tyrol's Hangar Deck and Lt. Wilson signaled back to Langston that it was ok to unbuckle and exit the craft.

Langston and his escort exited the shuttle from the lower cargo bay and walked up length of the bay to meet Admiral Adama when he noticed that there was a commotion ahead. "Come on Yusuf, follow me," Langston said as he found himself following Staff Sergeant Lidia Hadrian the Galactica's Sergeant at Arms. The three ran up to see what the commotion at the returning Raptors was.

There holding her M4 Carbine to Chief Petty Officer Galen Tyrol's head was Staff Sergeant Elaine Conner his missing Medical Specialist. Her voice sounded as if she didn't care if the Chief lived or died, but she did say, "Soldier get up off of Father Cavil and let him up. I already know he's a Cylon as is Doctor Simon O'Neill. Now do as I say or I'll pull this trigger and spray your gray matter all over this deck"

From his vantage point CPT William Langston noted that the Colonial Marines of the Galactica's Security Detail were about to shoot SSG Conner. So he decided then and there to take charge before the Admiral did. "Sergeant Connor Attention! Secure your weapon and report!" This he yelled out in Caprican and English. To his satisfaction the Special Forces soldier came to attention with her weapon dangling by its bungee sling. She even rendered a proper American Army salute.

"Sir, I've been with the Colonial Resistance led by Samuel Anders of the Caprican Buccaneers Pyramid Team. I helped to train his people in guerilla tactics, battlefield medicine and field hygiene as well as operational security of their facility and forces. I served as their Assistant Medical Officer until rescue by Captain Thrace. Upon exiting Captain Thrace's Raptor this man attacked Father John Cavil, a known Cylon defector shouting for Security. I was only attempting to protect Mr. Cavil from this man harming him. From his reaction and from what Father Cavil has told me there is a copy of his model on the Galactica posing as a priest of Athena. I assume that is the reason that this soldier attacked Father Cavil." She kept her eyes looking straight ahead as she gave a rather emotionless, but professional if brief report.

CPT Langston came up to her as Staff Sgt. Hadrian helped CPO Tyrol from the deck where Elaine had clocked him with a hard kick into a spread eagle position next to Fr. Cavil. At his signal PVT Khost, Yusuf took charge of Fr. Cavil and helped him up. At that point RADM Adama came up and asked, "Sergeant, how do you know that Dr. O'Neill and Fr. Cavil have defected?"

Elaine looked into Adama's eyes and said in accented, but understandable Caprican, "Sir I've been working with him for most of a year and have talked with him about why the Cylons attacked during that time. I also learned that he and Dr. O'Neill were Cylons themselves after the rescue of Captain Thrace from the Cylon Farm near Delphi. I know they're representatives of your enemies, but sir I can vouch for them as having shifted their loyalties. Like Sharon Agathon, Fr. Cavil and Dr. O'Neill have been working with our resistance cell since the discovery that O'Neill was a Cylon. Now being an Earther I have no preconceived ideas concerning Cylons mechanical or otherwise. You see if Captain Langston hadn't said so yet back on Earth our robots are rather primitive still. We have remote piloted drones that can be used for reconnaissance or air strikes using Hellfire missiles, we have manufacturing robots that help assemble heavy items like automobiles and such, we have wire controlled robots used to disable bombs, we have radio controlled robots that can scout out the interior of buildings for potential hazards or people trapped by collapses, we have some animatronic robots used to educate or entertain, and we have preprogrammed drones that can fly either photo recon or in the case of the UCAVs bombing missions. Now we don't have anything quite like the Cylon Centurion and our version of Raiders aren't self-aware. All of our robots are still just tools and need at some point in their operation a human or a team of humans to run them." Looking over to Starbuck and Anders she smirked and added, "It seems to me that I've given this speech before."

"Major Langston since Sergeant Conner here is yours take charge of her and debrief her. I want your report after you've debriefed everyone involved in the Rescue Mission and with Anders resistance group. Sergeant Hadrian, make sure that a squad of Marines arrests our Father Cavil and takes him to the Brig. I want to sit in on the debriefings of this Father Cavil and Doctor O'Neill, Major Langston," RADM Adama said as he looked to Chief Tyrol, "Chief go with Major Langston and fill him in on what you know of our Father Cavil." He looked then at SSG Conner, "Sergeant I want you to go over what you know about those Cylon models you know and give Major Langston and Sergeant Hadrian a full report!. Now everyone get off this deck and back to work!"

Adama stormed off the Hangar Deck to a hatch that led to one of the causeways that led back into the main hull of the Galactica. Behind him were his XO Colonel Saul Tigh and his son Commander Lee Adama. A squad of Marines also trailed behind them and another went before them. CPT Langston, who only went by his Colonial Marine Corps Rank around the Admiral and other Colonial senior officers looked at the junior officers, Non-Coms, and enlisted still staring at everyone that came off of the Raptors. "Attention people I people I believe the Admiral said to get back to work. For some of you, that means getting these birds into the maintenance bays for PMCS checks. For more of you, that means cleaning your weapons, stowing them and meeting me in the Pilot's Briefing Room in one hour. For the rest of you, especially Mister Anders' people I want you in the room now. I want you to tell me your full stories one at a time from the time of the fall to now. Sergeant Conner you're with me," Langston said.

Upon saying this Langston led the civilians into the Pilots Briefing Room where in turn he debriefed the two Cylons, learned from both of them and Sam Anders that he too was a Cylon, but not of the same group as attacked the Colonies. Langston learned from the newly awakened Anders that his group included Chief Tyrol; whom his Father Cavil proceeded to awaken using the same code phrase as on Anders. Then once the pilots, ECOs, and Marines entered he debriefed them on the mission and confirmed with Sharon Agathon that Simon O'Neill and John Cavil were indeed Cylons. Cavil was the first or Model One and O'Neill was the fourth or Model Four. Sharon herself was of the eighth or a Model Eight.

Each piece of information he used to build up dossier on the members of the Caprican Resistance, the five known Cylons, and added to those dossiers he already had on those members of the Colonial Fleet and Colonial Marine Corps he worked with daily. Then he called up his record for SSG Elaine Conner and added to it her reports on her separation shortly after their arrival on Caprica in Delphi, to her time with the Caprican Resistance, and the rescue by CAPT Thrace. Knowing that the Galactica, the Valkyrie and the Pegasus were shorthanded, CPT Langston said, "I've been authorized by the Admiralty of the Reconstituted Colonial Fleet to reactivate any Colonial retirees and reservists among your ranks Anders and to seek the enlistments of those wanting to continue to defend their fellow Colonials and fight Cylons, well those still at war with the surviving Colonials."

From a pack PVT Khost began to place enlistment packets on the table at the front of the Briefing room and reactivation packets for those retirees and reservist in the ranks of the Resistance. He smiled as he watched Captain Langston work. Since coming to Caprica and later the Colonial Refugee Fleet Langston has also worked to raise the numbers of their own ranks. He recruited those Colonials who served their time in the Colonial Armed Forces and so far between the Belt and other ships in the Civilian part of the Fleet there were about 120 members of Langston's command that took enlistments into the United States Army. All of whom were now going through Special Forces School as Langston was rebuilding his team or Special Forces Company with local recruits.

So far ten of the recruits qualified for the school and they shall be the first class. CPT Langston looked over the six recruits they got from the two dozen survivors of the Caprican Resistance. The rest joined the Colonial Fleet or the Colonial Marine Corps. Those that didn't join elected to remain civilians and work for the survival as workers on the ships like the Tylium Refinery Ship. "Ok people those of you that volunteered for the Colonial Fleet and Colonial Marine Corps raise your right hand and repeat after me…" Then CPT Langston administered the Colonial Armed Forces oath of enlistment.

Langston after giving those that enlisted into the Colonial Armed Forces turned to those that wanted to join the U.S. Army's detachment in the Colonial Fleet. "Gentlemen and ladies next I want you to understand we are a long way from Earth and the United States of America, but I can enlist those that wish to immigrate to the United States of America upon our reaching Earth into the United States Army. I can't give you commissions within the U.S. Army, but I can see that you get promotions up to and including Sergeant First Class, if you merit such. Now if you would raise your right hands and repeat after me…" Then the six including Samuel Anders, Simon O'Neill, and Jean Barolay raised their hands and took the U.S. Army oath of enlistment.

"Sergeant Conner I have a promotion for you too," Langston said. Then he picked up a jewelry case and opened it. Within were two sets of Sergeant First Class chevrons, one set was black and the other was gold. "I got these made by a Jeweler on the Orion's Belt where we have our base of operation. I did take an honorary commission as a Major in the Colonial Armed Forces, but I still maintain our detachment as a part of the U.S. Army. So I can promote you since we don't have any higher ranking officers than me. Now Sergeant we're flying by the seat of our pants out here. I'm hoping that if we keep a record of our new activities. I suspect that the Army and even the Congress would appreciate our predicament. From here on I want all of our people to make a journal of all activities so that we can keep ourselves out of Courts Martial and maintain our service in the Army."

_**Two hours later after the final presidential returns were posted:**_

The War Room of the Galactica was busy as Admirals Adama and Cain planned the landings on the planet everyone called New Caprica. In the room with the Admirals were President Elect Gaius Baltar, President Laura Roslin, Commander Lee Adama of the Valkyrie, and Commander Jurgen Belzen of the Yashuman. The Valkyrie and is sister ship the Yashuman were the only other Battlestars to escape the fall of the Colonies.

Present also was Langston wearing his Colonial Marine Corps Rank of Major. With him were Second Lieutenant Sandra Morse and Staff Sergeant Jose Torres. The discussion so far had been over the planned temporary settlement of New Caprica. Langston like most of his people wanted to get to Earth as soon as they could, but also he wanted to avoid leading the Cylons straight there. "Mister Baltar, Ms. Roslin, Admirals Adama and Cain, Commanders Belzen and Adama I know that there are people wanting to get off these ships and onto a planet. New Caprica is a marginally habitable world for humans whether Colonial born or Earth born, but like the Admirals and Commanders I see this is just a place to rest, repair, and restock before resuming our journey to Earth. We've spent the last year whether in the Fleet or back on the ground in the Colonies surviving the Cylons and their attacks. This has left us tired and drained physical and emotionally. My Medical Specialist Sergeant First Class Elaine Conner will be working with the Simons and Major Cottle running clinics on each of the ships. Their mission will be to conduct wellness checks. Now we'll need healthy people on the ground down there first to select camp sites. I would suggest not settling permanently as long term settlement here would be as dangerous as settling long term along Earth's Arctic Circle."

"Are you saying we shouldn't permanently colonize this planet Major?" asked President Elect Baltar rather incredulously staring at Langston. "Our people and even those few of yours with us have been cooped up in these ships most of a year. Need I remind you we have children on these ships some of whom haven't seen the light of a sun or felt the wind on their faces for nearly all of that time? I know you say that Earth is actually out there and have evidence on your portable computer, but I say that we need to settle down and let our population rest and even build."

Admiral Cain spoke then taking charge of the situation, "Mister Baltar, Major Langston, Admiral Adama and I have come up with a solution." She looked at the President Elect knowing that he wanted to settle here on this ice box of a world. True it was within tolerances of humans, but even Earthers like Major Langston advised against settling here.

Langston looked at Baltar and said, "Yes sir, we set up a colony here to replenish the supplies of the ships. We also take the time needed to repair what we can before taking the whole fleet to Earth. You see though on Earth we have settlements in places near our arctic circle that are a lot like this world's tropical and equatorial regions most of us live in Earth's temperate, sub-tropical, and tropical regions. When it comes down to a permanent settlement for your people of the two hundred or so nations of Earth, my Earth I'd suggest contacting Canada or the United States of America. I'd be remiss if I didn't say that I'm partial to the U.S. as a place to settle, but both nations will legally respect your religious beliefs. There is also the fact that both nations have lots of areas as yet unsettled and you could establish a community where you can preserve your culture."

Baltar nodded as did outgoing President Laura Roslin. Looking up from the map table in the War Room Baltar looked at the others and asked, "Well what is this plan you've concocted?" He looked from Cain, to Adama, and finally to the Earther, Major Langston. "I assume it involves still looking for Earth?" The nods of the three military officers confirmed his assumption. "Will it involve using part of the fleet to find Earth?"

It was Langston that answered, "Yes, it will, Mister Baltar." Then he laid out the plan to use the Valkyrie and Pegasus with two support ships and two of the surviving Gunstars to travel coreward along the path hinted at in the Scrolls of Pythia. "We all know that the Lagoon Nebula in the Sagittarian Arm is visible from Earth, Kobol, and the Colonies. So the plan is to travel using sightings of the nebula as a navigation beacon. Once we've located Earth we'll send guides back to show the way to the planet."

Cain looked at the plan laid out before her and Admiral Adama. She looked at the political leadership too. President Roslin and President Elect Baltar were nodding. She then looked at Adama and Langston. "I accept the plan. One alteration though, I want Admiral Adama to command the Earth Expedition. He'll take the Galactica under his command, the Valkyrie under Commander Belzen, a Tylium miner, and a Tylium Refiner. Major Langston you and Staff Sergeant Conner will be the Earth representatives on this mission. Meanwhile the Pegasus, Yashuman, and the Marinestar Myrmidon will remain here at New Caprica to defend the base we'll build. Now if Earth can help this base will not be abandoned. However," she looked over at Langston, "from what the Major has said Earth is not as advanced in space technology as the Colonies were prior to their destruction." Langton nodded and confirmed what she said.

"In that case," Cain continued, "We prepare to evacuate the base and leave toward Earth after the return of the scout group. Langston what kind of help could we get from Earth once we make contact with them?"

"Admiral as I've told everyone before Earth is at best equal to the Colonies prior to the Cylon attack of earlier this year, but we lack the space technologies you all have. Now we do have a sound industrial base, but the economies of the Earth's nations are in rebound from a disastrous economic recession. The sharing of technologies with Earth could do much to jumpstart a new renaissance there. You see," Langston was looking at President Roslin and President Elect Baltar the major nations, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, Japan, China, Brazil, South Africa, Israel, Canada, Sweden, Taiwan, and South Korea have the industrial might to build a new human fleet, but I don't recommend a return to the Colonies." Everyone looked at him shocked, but he held up his hands indicating that they should listen to him first.

"With the addition of John, Simon, and Sharon we have agents of the Cylon human clone models that wish to end this holocaust. They can work with the Cylon infiltrators within the Fleet to change their views and feelings about this war. Then we can change the hearts and minds of those infiltrators gaining valuable intelligent assets that are more likely to aid us," Langston said looking from one Colonial to another. "I'm not saying that we let off those that actively took part in the planning and execution of the attacks, but we do work to bring the rank and file of the organic Cylons into the view that destroying humanity doesn't serve their cause. This is where my XO excels she's an expert at Psyops or Psychological Operations. She can lead and teach Colonial officers and NCOs in Psyops. Their mission will be to turn the human clone Cylons within the fleet into allies rather than enemies."

Langston looked at the outgoing President and the President Elect. He saw confusion on Baltar's face and revulsion on Roslin's. The military officers in the room all nodded with understanding. "Converting the enemies we have closest to us into allies will help us with dealing with those still loyal to the Cylon cause. Now we just have to locate all the infiltrators."

Gaius Baltar looked on with feigned interest until he felt a familiar touch to his shoulder and on his leg. The familiar breath of his unseen companion touched his ear. His hearing picked up her subtle intakes and exhales. He felt her feather light touches of her fingers as she ran the tips along his shoulders and arms. Her tantalizing softness as she licked the outer curve of his ear almost made him spasm with ecstasy while he tried to listen to the Earther explain about Psyops and winning hearts and minds.

In her soft breathy whisper Virtual Six said, "Gaius, you really should listen to this man. He knows what he's talking about." Six then turned and looked over Baltar's left shoulder at the American as he pointed out what was expected and also what may go wrong. It the same sultry sexy voice she said, "Captain Langston is a professional at Asymmetrical Warfare. His unit was the most successful in the South Asian nation of Afghanistan in getting the local villagers to turn from supporting the Taliban to supporting the Afghan government. This man could sell sand to the Gemenese people, he truly is really good and he is part of God's plan for the people of the Colonies."


End file.
